Delierre Survives Historic Capital Marathon

It
took the longest recorded squash match for more than 30 years to decide
the Squash Revolution National Capital Open Presented by Oliver
title when Canadian Shawn Delierre beat England's Adrian
Waller in two hours and 37 minutes, surviving a battle which went
the full distance and featured four tie-break games.

The
fourth game of the climax of the PSA World Tour Challenger 15
event in Washington DC alone lasted 44 minutes!

"Every
rally of the match was hotly-contested - except when Delierre virtually
conceded the fourth game after Waller had sped off to 9-3," explained
tournament spokesman Hunt Richardson.

"In
the fifth game Waller was up 7-5 and then he lost three points in a row,
two of them via unforced errors. It was the only time the London
native's focus lapsed after more than two hours of brutal rallies.

"Waller tied the score at 8-8 and saved two match balls to knot it at
10-10. The blue ribbon remained unclaimed at 11-11 and 12-12. But the
fleet Canadian, literally trembling from exhaustion during the last
quarter-hour of this battle, never broke. Delierre willed himself
through to seal the game and match 14-12, a heroic feat of mind over
body!

The
longest recorded match in the sport took place in 1983 - in the era of
'hand-in-hand-out' scoring - when legendary Pakistani Jahangir Khan
beat Egyptian Gamal Awad 9-10, 9-5, 9-7, 9-2 in the 166-minute
Chichester Festival final in England.

And,
incredibly, it was Shawn Delierre in November 2008 who first
claimed the longest match since the scoring system went to PAR
(point-a-rally) to 11 points in September 2004 - in the semi-finals of
the Baltimore Cup in Baltimore, USA, where he beat fellow
countryman Shahier Razik in a 150-minute marathon.

And it
was Razik who Delierre toppled in the Washington semi-final to make the
National Capital Open climax!

Delierre Despatches Top Man In Washington

Canada's squash hierarchy has been turned on its head in the USA where
Shawn Delierre despatched his country's top-ranked player
Shahier Razik in the semi-finals of the Squash Revolution
National Capital Open Presented by Oliver to secure an unexpected
place in the final of the PSA World Tour Challenger 15 event in
Washington DC.

Delierre lost out to Razik in both the last two Canadian National
Championship finals - but the unseeded 30-year-old from Montreal exacted
his revenge south of the border by beating the event's top seed and
world No35 11-5, 11-6, 11-4 in 60 minutes.

Now in
the 17th Tour final of his career, Canadian number two Delierre will
face Englishman Adrian Waller.

Fourth
seed Waller, the world No39 from Enfield, ended the run of surprise
semi-finalist Omar Abdel Meguid by beating the 24-year-old
Egyptian 7-11, 11-6, 11-4, 11-9 in 56 minutes.

Waller
is celebrating the sixth final of his career - but his first for well
over a year.

Marathon Man Meguid Makes Washington Semis

Unseeded Omar Abdel Meguid upset fellow Egyptian Mohd Ali
Anwar Reda in the quarter-finals of the Squash Revolution
National Capital Open Presented by Oliver - but it took a two hour
marathon to the separate pair and take the unheralded 24-year-old from
Giza through to the semi-finals of the PSA World Tour Challenger 15
squash event in Washington DC, USA.

"The
first game had Reda marginally ahead throughout," said a spokesman for
the event. "In the second, both players ran neck and neck till a couple
of tins late in the game helped Omar close it out to equalise.

"Game
three probably determined the outcome of the match: Reda had game balls
at 10-6 up. A couple of nicks from Omar brought it to 10-8. Then the
play got very muddy before Omar closed out the game 12-10 with a streak
of six unanswered points."

Meguid
saved two game-balls in the fourth before Reda, the No2 seed, finally
drew level. The underdog raced to 10-4 in the decider and, after Reda
saved three match-balls, it was Meguid who ultimately emerged triumphant
8-11, 11-9, 12-10, 8-11, 11-7 in exactly 120 minutes.

Meguid, the world No54, now meets England's Adrian Waller for a
place in the final. After winning the opener against Egypt's Mohamed
Abouelghar, fourth seed Waller came back from 8-2 down in the second
to take that game before closing out the match 11-8, 11-9, 11-7.

There
was another marathon upset in the top half of the draw where Shawn
Delierre beat third-seeded New Zealander Campbell Grayson
11-9, 9-11, 11-3, 12-10 in 114 minutes to set up an all-Canadian semi
with favourite Shahier Razik.

After
the first two games were shared, unseeded Delierre charged ahead to
10-3, helped by the Kiwi's errors.

"In
frustration (at game-ball), Grayson threw his racquet, for which he was
penalised with a Conduct Stroke," said Andrew Strasfogel. "Game
to Delierre 11-3."

Grayson twice led in the fourth, and had game-ball to force a decider.
But Delierre held his nerve to secure his place in the last four.

The
Canadian number two from Montreal now faces his country's number one,
ranked just three places higher. Razik scored his second straight games
win in a row, beating Pakistan's Yasir Ali Butt 11-7, 11-8, 11-3
in 35 minutes.